


The Widening Gyre

by LorettaFryingPan



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, episode 102
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-20 15:45:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11338491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LorettaFryingPan/pseuds/LorettaFryingPan
Summary: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"Three perspectives on a fall, and the subsequent flight.





	The Widening Gyre

**Author's Note:**

> So like everyone else on the internet, my soul is hurting SO MUCH in the wake of dear Vax being turned to dust. I'm sure everything will work out, as Matt is a fair and gentle god, but for now I am living in anxiety.
> 
> Also, because I am a huge poetry nerd, "The Second Coming" by Yeats is my poem for this whole arc

_Turning and turning in the widening gyre_   
_The falcon cannot hear the falconer_   
_~*~_

The Deathwalker's Ward used to reek of death, of centuries of must and decay. It turned all their stomachs more than once, particularly if they'd been drinking. A lifetime ago, it was something they would tease Vax about; how no matter how sneaky he was, enemies would smell him coming. 

When Scanlan gathered the scattered, still-warm pieces of leather up in his arms, they smelled like ash and, faintly, lavender. Somehow that was worse. 

There was no time, but he scooped everything he could into his arms, from the long feathered cloak, to boots, to the glimmering silver snake belt. Vex had told him, in one of the precious few conversations they’d had after his return, that her brother had carried Scanlan's body back from the final fight with Raishan, that Vax had cradled him and refused to set him down till they got back to the temple in Whitestone.

He gripped the bundle a little tighter. It was the least he could do to return the favor.

\---

Vax's face had been the last thing Vex saw, as she succumbed to Vecna's spell and darkness overtook her vision. When she breathed again, and met Pike's frightened eyes, he was gone. There was chaos all around, but she couldn't see him. 

"Where's Vax?"

No one seemed to hear her, or they were just too focused on getting out to answer. Keyleth took her one hand and Percy the other and Vex nearly tore out of their grasp because Vax was _missing_ and they weren't about to leave without him, were they?

But before she could protest the world shifted, compressed into nothing, leaving the desolate landscape behind. They came out in the eternal twilight of the Feywild, a sight that was calming and jarring all at once. They all stood there, breathing heavily and taking stock of just how fucked they all were. Vex frantically looked around for her brother, needing to see him alive more than anything else in that moment. He was nowhere to be found, and Scanlan had a pile of something dark in his arms. 

_"Where's Vax?"_

\---

The Raven queen watched from her throne as the remains of her champion swirled on the breeze like smoke, and the rest of Vox Machina fled the material plane. 

Her porcelain mask remained serene and impassive as ever, but the face behind it was twisted in a disgusted sneer. That abomination, that _lich_ , had struck down her brave champion. It was a grave insult she could not respond to.

"My queen."

And here he was, her faithful Vax’ildan.  She beckoned him closer and he came, despite the obvious trepidation in his eyes. He knelt at her right hand, head lowered.

“You are frightened.” It wasn’t a question. She reached out and put a gentle hand under his chin, raising his gaze to meet hers.

“I trust in you, my lady. Whatever you will, I accept it, but...I don’t want this to be the end.”

She could feel the myriad threads stretching out into infinity, and the tremor that rippled outward at his words. Her champion’s will pulled at the warp and weft of the universe itself.

“You still have a part to play,” she said. She pressed her hand then to the mark on his chest, reminded him of the boon she had gifted him, even though he had no idea what it meant yet. “The future holds many things, and you are one of them. But for now, you must be patient. The time will come.”

He nodded, visibly comforted by her words. With that, she laid her hand upon his forehead and sent his soul to rest, to a place where it would be safe until such a time as it was called upon again. There was still much to do, and she would not relinquish her champion.

 

 


End file.
